Wanted: A New Psychology; Interview with Futurist Gray Scott

Six months ago, I had a casual Skype conversation with techno-philosopher Gray Scott, a contributing blogger for the World Future Society and the founder and executive director of the futurist, technology, and consciousness website Serious Wonder. We discussed how the world could benefit from embracing a new "psychology" to contend with the future—a transhuman future that is coming much more quickly than most people realize.

Our civilization is being rapidly transformed through advancing science and technology. Despite this transformation, I feel most people are lagging behind philosophically, culturally, and psychologically when it comes to understanding and believing what is possible for human beings. Last week, I sent Gray Scott some questions so we could continue our dialogue. Here are my questions and his answers:

Q. Gray, we once discussed how a new psychology could be beneficial for society in regards to its understanding of the future and advancing technology. Can you elaborate your thoughts on this and why this might be desired?

A. We are experiencing unbelievable technological and psychological exponential change on this planet. We need a new set of psychological skills to cope with this change. Our world looks very different culturally, psychologically, and environmentally than it did 15 years ago. The mobile revolution has dramatically changed our world view, empowered women, and increased our empathy. Corrupt governments have been toppled and wars avoided because our species has become so digitally connected.

Negative and pessimistic views of technology have always existed. I can just imagine some pessimistic Sumerian in 3500 B.C. screaming about the evils of the wheel. We still deal with this fear based psychology in modern culture. Technology will mirror the culture and the psychology creating it. We need new psychological scaffolding to work with. Less fear and more optimism. A more holistic overview of how we look at ourselves and these new technological advancements could transform our planet.

I would love to see a future filled with abundance for everyone, however, we will not achieve this utopia until our cultural shadow-self is integrated. Taking psychological ownership of our fear is the first step. Technology is just a reflection of the deep unconscious cultural mind.

Q. What are some of the hang-ups you see with the current psychology that society seems to be stuck in when it comes to topics like transhumanism and radical life extension ideas?

A. Some people are hung up by fear. They are frightened of the changes they see around them. They are operating on old religious beliefs, old mythologies, and old information. The new techno-generation or transhuman generation are not buying it. They want to thrive. They want to live hundreds of years. They are not waiting on a rapture, doomsday, or cancer. They want utopia and they want it now. How can any culture be psychologically sound if we are told that we are "only human?" We have been conditioned to be frightened of our power, our love, our worth. Watch a child play and you will see real power. They are fearless. We are taught to desire the death wish, and it is not natural. Immortality may be impossible, but imagine what humanity could learn if we all lived 700 years. We could travel deep into utopia and beyond. We are experiencing a shedding of old psychological, political, and religious references. We could call it a psyco-digital-moulting.

Q. What are some good methods for getting society to embrace a new psychology for dealing better with the future?

A. One method is too seek out social support systems that are open and techno-positive. We need psychologists, elected representatives, and teachers to fully embrace technology. Transhumanism gives us a chance to unleash our biological and digital imagination into the material world. We can use bio-hacking and brain computer interface devices to allow people to walk again, see again, or communicate again. Showing the positive impacts of technology will help society embrace a new set of skills. The future is inclusive, not exclusive.

Q. I feel like technology is expanding very quickly, but human culture and psychology are not keeping up with it. How long can this go on before this discrepancy seriously hurts our species?

A. The technological singularity has been predicted to happen around 2045 so I would say that is our make or break time. As a futurist-philosopher, I am fascinated by the future of psychology. We have already crossed the threshold into the unknown. If we do not educate ourselves psychologically, we will face huge catastrophes in the near future. Digital outliers, like the elderly, Luddites, and poverty stricken will have a harder time understanding the new techno-psychology. Imagine a world filled with clones or artificially intelligent robots that can pass the "Turring Test" of believability. Are psychologists talking about the near future issues of robotic romance, digital-death remorse, or clone envy? Sounds like science fiction, but it is closer than most people would believe.

Q. How can the media play a better role in bringing forth a new psychology of the future and advancing technology?

A. Media consumption is no longer a passive experience. We touch, pinch, and swipe our way through the media world today. This interactive experience of seeking out knowledge and getting media from our social networks allows an entirely new psychology to emerge.

The way we consume media has radically shifted in the last 15 years. We can "binge-watch" entire seasons of shows in one day now that we have YouTube and Netflix. We can create individual "programming" based on our own psychological needs and desires.

The major media networks need to focus more on the positive implications of technology and less on dystopian fears. The people in the media need to be information leaders. They need to educate and enlighten. Our cultural amygdala is worn out. No more terror alerts. No more fear. We are ready for a higher road.

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Zoltan Istvan is an award-winning journalist, philosopher, and activist. You can find him on Twitter, Google+, Facebook,and LinkedIn. Zoltan is also the author of the recently published #1 Philosophical bestseller novelThe Transhumanist Wager. Available in ebook or paperback, the controversial novel is a revolutionary reading experience. You can check it outhere.

At the risk of being called fearful and retrograde, I also think this article is in need of a serious reality check. And also, of some substance. Comparing fearful individuals to almighty techno-lovers without any clear arguments is manichean and demagogical. Technology can also be used seriously wrong and hurt more than it does good if it's used with the wrong intentions (making money, controlling the masses, etc.).

Also, I'd like to hear some argumentation on assumptions that are very big (such as the fact that technology boosts imagination and potential, not as we know it now, I'm sorry). Empowered women, increased empathy, decreased wars because of the mobile development of the last 15 years ? Explain please.

A "new" psychology has been with us since 1937-1941. See, "Esoteric Psychology," Volumes I and II, 1937-1941. The author is Alice A. Bailey, but the concepts are those of a Master of the Wisdom. A Master is one who has completed his earthly evolution. Lucis Press, Publishing arm of World Goodwill, N.Y.
Modern psychology has done excellent work with the human personality, but the idea of a human entity has being a living Soul, a "God Within," has not been discovered. Nor has the occult fact of the Chakras, nor has the "Etheric Envelope" surrounding the human physical body been discovered. These enlightening volumes await your study and advanced thinking, as do all World Goodwill literature and the Theosophical Society authors. Herein lies the Ancient Wisdom of old for the benefit of modern humanity.

Roberto Assagioli in his "An Act of Will," said, "I have a body but I am not my body; I have emotions but I am not my emotions; I have a mind but I am not my mind. I am a Center of Pure-Consciousness." Maslow also sought for such a Self-Actualization. Psychology today is stuck in a Materialistic world paradigm. Our seven level solar system are dimensions of conscious energy and are based on a Spiritual world. To the scientist this is: "The Microcosmic recapitulates the Macrocosmic." Or, in occult terms, "As above, so below." There is a whole universe beyond this physical one. One of the Masters has said: There does exists a Truth and within humanity hides the potential for its discovery.

To understand the rate culture changes according to technological changes, you ought to look at history. Many many times tribes suffered many loses due to war, disease, or famine. How did they continue to pass on their "technology" (i.e. ways of doing things) to future generations. This is a matter of survival. They did it because culture tends to be static - designed to withstand pressures, not to adapt quickly to any given circumstance change. Religion, ways of doing things, beliefs about esoteric things, patterns of interactions, social hierarchy, architecture, ideas of fairness and justice, all are passed on from generation to generation. For centuries things never really changed all that much.

What I am trying to say to you is that tons and tons of history shows that our rapid technological advancement (exponential) will predictably be met by conservative social and cultural forces that have keep mankind alive. It isn't some amorphous fear of cultural or social change that is primarily creating a barrier to rapid change, it is the historical factor of cultural and social inertia that has kept us alive through thick and thin. This isn't a defense of cultural or social conservatism, but a historical perspective on it.

The Buddha has used human ignorance as his keynote in his Dhammapada; the Noble Four truths and the Eightfold Path. Ignorance as used here, and I didn't use that term in my comments,is simply "Not yet discovered Truths" and in that regard all of us are still unaware and ignorant of many things and concepts not yet in our consciousness. The whole purpose of evolution is not of Form, but of a continuing expansion of our consciousness. To concentrate on keeping our physical bodies alive by way of manipulating the brain (The brain is only a muscle and an instrument for physical transmission of higher level knowledgeS) which is not the Mind; it is by use of the Mind we discover Truths, which are then reflected in the brain for concrete understanding. Our mental plane consciousness is dual: The Concrete and the Abstract; higher level comprehension. It is not the past which should concern us but the future expansion of consciousness and the subjection of the personality to the Soul.

"The technological singularity has been predicted to happen around 2045 so I would say that is our make or break time."

I've read predictions like this for dates which have already come and gone, back in the 1970's and 1980's, though more along the lines of when we would "conquer aging" and "become immortal." Funny, but most of the guys who made those forecasts have died by now.

I don't dispute the value of not wanting to die. But I do think that we don't live in the privileged generation which will make the cut for radical life extension, unless we push hard to try to turn death from a permanent off-state into a temporary and reversible off-state starting with current and reachable brain preservation technologies. Refer to the website of the Brain Preservation Foundation:

The impact of a forum in a programmable super structure could make for a truly interesting psychology. Constructs of the personality and cultural identity of people when their distinction of thought is literally a hack away. Who are you when your person is not your's alone?

The psychology of culture as a defense mechanism or a period of time in between while the new psychology is worked out by a few whose basic form of self, souls, are both flexible and coherent.

Would r not be great to see some consideration of what mass and indvdual psychological structure might do and become?

What a ridiculous philosopher. This "transhumanist" clearly does not consider many aspects of continued technological improvement, including almost all of the negative aspects (most notably the decline of individual human freedom). There have always been upsides and downsides to technological growth and there always will be but the transhumanist arrogantly brushes off consideration of the downsides. I'm sure this is because he is either simply ignorant or willfully ignorant. The latter would be my guess since the guy seems dedicated to a career of promoting "transhumanism" so he intentionally overlooks clear evidence and trends which suggest his vision would be a disaster for humanity.

One simple question that the transhumanist hardly considers is "to what end is all this psychological adaptation to rapid technological growth working towards?". The end he optimistically envisions is some poorly conceived utopian ideal, something about living 700 years and learning more (to what end those "advancements" work towards is even less clear). How many times throughout history have we read about peoples' utopian visions for the world? If their utopias really were what's best for humanity then they'd all be the same visions but clearly that's not the case. By the way, Hitler and Stalin were convinced of their utopian visions as well. Point being, one man's utopia is another man's dystopia - this point should be on billboards everywhere to stop arrogant fools (such as the transhumanist) from trying to impose their visions on other people.

I leave the most fundamental problem with this tranhumanist's vision for last. The interviewer mentions the growing discrepancy between technology and human psychology/culture as having the potential to seriously hurt the human species. The transhumanist replies that humanity needs to avoid catastrophe by re-educating ourselves psychologically and we need to do it fast. His reply just sums up how poor his understanding really is and here's why:
The transhumanist doesn't acknowledge that the potential catastrophe for humanity (which he suggests we avoid through psychological re-education) would actually be caused by TECHNOLOGICAL GROWTH - ironically the same exact thing he's so naively touting as the cure-all for humanity's ills. The fundamental problem in all of this is that the transhumanist implies that it is humanity who should be altered to serve technological growth rather than technological growth being altered to serve humanity. That's a dystopia if I've ever seen one.....

Most of the comments here are confusing and hard to understand, which indicates a lack of a clear picture of either a human or of our solar system. Truth is always simple if viewed correctly. The "God Within" the human entity is the Soul, or higher Self. This is the "watcher," the "observer," the true creator of all he perceives or conceives. The Soul is the Self; all other things are the "not-self." Think of the baker who can bake any number of breads, rolls, etc, but the "BAKER IS NOT HIS PRODUCTS; they are his creations. An occult expression is: The Mind is the Slayer of the Real. Cosmic Ideas, Plato's, Forms, come to the person who is totally open mentally to the "messages from above," usually in one-pointed meditation on some concept of the ancient wisdom. We are forever creating thought forms, and when ours are mingled with the multitude of thought forms of others, there is a Mass psychology; ALL MAN MADE! Humanity does not create real Truths; only human ideals. God (solar Logos) creates TRuths, which man can DISCOVER, IF HE IS OPEN TO THEM. Human problems are self-perpetuating, and only a genuine, open minded- study of the Ancient Wisdom, which has been with us since our inception on this planet, and passed on by all past Avatars (Buddha, Christ, Sri Krisha) can bring real solutions to man's problems. Instead of generating more trivial, undesirable ideals, we need to search our hearts and minds for what are genuine Truths. Look Within, not outside the self. The mind is meant to be the controller of all earthly things. If it creates anything, it should be altruism, brotherhood, and a love for all humanity. God is LOVE, and LOVE IS ENERGY. Energy, like money, should be "spent" on what is worthy of the human being, who is a God in process of Self-Realization.

A Master was a previous member of the human kingdom, who has mastered all the laws of earthly existence and has "graduated" to the fifth kingdom in nature; that of the Kingdom of Souls. He lives totally a mental existence and requires no physical body. Earthy reincarnations are behind him and they communicate via telepathy. The Alice A. Bailey books, from Lucis Press www.worldgoodwill.org, are in reality the concepts of a Master of Love-Wisdom (the Tibetan)and second below that of the true Christ who is the Head of the Hierarchy. The Masters have sacrificed and dedicated their "lives" to one purpose only: to expand the consciousness of humanity and raise this fourth kingdom to the fifth Kingdom of Souls: what they themselves have achieved. Evolution is not for FORMS. It is for the purpose of allowing for a continual expansion of human consciousness through the seven planes of our solar system. Read, Initiation, Human and Solar, Alice A. Bailey, Lucis Press, worldgoodwill.org 1951. Most of Humanity needs to change its concept of what and who a human entity is and to discover the real purpose of our existence.